You should watch this adaptation if:
- You enjoy seeing your favorite stories *reimagined* and ultimately turned into garbage.
- You love contrived conflicts.
- You enjoy killing realism in the mystery aspect.
- You appreciate a lack of logic and motivation.
- You’re a fan of falling chandeliers.
- You love watching your favorite characters devolve or turn into complete jerks.
About Satoko:
Satoko has a "genius" motivation, and she spends hundreds of years watching fragments, casually dropping chandeliers, sneaking out of her dorm under cameras, and essentially pulling a night shift as Bob the Builder at St. Lucia's. Oh, and Featherine gave her King Crimson powers. It doesn’t hurt her to commit questionable acts, and she even gets a whole episode dedicated to her ridiculous suicides!
About Keiichi:
Keiichi was turned into an idiot who can’t tell the difference between a ladle and a spoon. Apparently, he’s now against cheating (even though he constantly cheated in games throughout the original). Thanks, got it. Also, he headbutts a metal gate and gushes like a massive ketchup bottle stabbed with a knife. Episode 4 covers this spectacle perfectly.
About Rena:
Rena has been relegated to a background character. Her screen time is less than that of a chair Rika used to beat Satoko in Saikoroshi.
About Oishi:
The issue here isn't with the top-tier waifu of the series, but rather with a gaping plot hole: Oishi shows up at the festival just to get a dose of H-173 from Satoko (hilarious, right? I can just imagine Ryukishi scrambling to explain why Satoko injects people unnoticed, yet instead of attacking her, they rage at Rika. What a joke.) Oh, wait, he explained it with Featherine. Expect her to patch every plot hole moving forward! Enjoy the episode where Oishi has infinite ammo, a goat-like neck, and heaps of JoJo-style flair.
About Satoshi:
Satoshi has been forgotten by the author, and Satoko only "finds" him when her fingerprint scanner magic activates. Deus Ex Featherine has gone wild, justifying every idiocy and change with her intervention.
About Teppei:
A completely negative character is suddenly made a sweetheart. Hello? He’s supposed to be entirely negative character, but a tiny flashback redeems him instantly? Of course, it’s explained away as Featherine randomly influencing the world.
- If you love watching sequels destroy the values and essence of the original, this adaptation is for you.
The Original's Themes and issues raised:
- Arc 1: Hiding information from a friend caused distrust and tragic outcomes.
Lesson: Don’t hide things from your friends that they might discover later, or they’ll be angry. Trust your loved ones.
- Arcs 2 & 5: Jealousy, broken promises, and neglecting Shion’s feelings.
Lesson: Trust those close to you, don’t envy others, and keep promises you make. Don’t abandon your loved ones.
- Arc 3: Resorting to murder instead of peaceful solutions.
Lesson: Don’t grab a knife when the issue can be resolved without bloodshed.
- Arc 6: Distrust among friends and blind trust in strangers led to disaster.
Lesson: Trust your friends more than strangers who feed you lies.
- Arc 7: Lack of unity to achieve a common goal.
Lesson: Strengthen old bonds to overcome challenges that can’t be tackled alone.
The Sequel’s Themes:
- Kill your friends because they’ll betray you.
- Crush the desires of your loved ones and think only of yourself.
- Ignore the suffering of those close to you.
I won’t keep listing them, but trust me, there’s a lot more.
A word about Rika's memory flashback:
- Satoko opts to watch Rika’s century-long memories, and we get a scene where the village is poisoned, and for some reason, a corpse truck is parked at the clinic while bodies are carried out of it. How did they get there? In the original, people were poisoned in the forest or storage-like buildings, and soldiers carried the bodies. And why are there bodies without bags? Does Tokyo want to make its enemies look even worse politically? Whatever.
As for the plot, there’s nothing to say.
I adore the When They Cry universe. I’ve read Higurashi and Umineko, read the manga, and watched the anime adaptations. While mediocre, they at least succeeded in some areas. Gou only stands out graphically compared to Studio DEEN’s 2006 adaptation. This treatment of sequels is unacceptable.
